Abbotsford-Mission up in ranking of entrepreneurial communities

The Abbotsford-Mission area is a better place to start and grow a business than a year prior, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s annual rankings of the country’s top entrepreneurial communities.

The report notes that “suburban areas tend to score much higher than major urban core cities” because they have “more-accommodative public policy, lower relative costs and still-reasonably good access to large markets.”

Abbotsford-Mission saw its score rise to 61.2 out of 100, from 59.1 a year ago. It finished 35th out of 121 communities across the country, slightly behind the Vancouver suburbs, which were ranked 28th. Abbotsford outperformed its neighbours to the west in having better business-friendly government policies, but trailed in “presence” and “perspective” measures, both of which incorporate statistical measures related to new business startups.

The Abbotsford-Mission area performed well on measures of life-satisfaction and the number of businesses hiring, but lagged when it came to its information and culture sector and number of building permits issued.